George Osborne
One damned thing after another: Britain’s crisis-ridden century so far
The Iraq war, the financial crisis, Brexit and Covid have seen many prime ministers blown off course. Will Keir Starmer be any luckier than his predecessors?
Enjoyable and informative but where’s the drama? Political Currency reviewed
The first episode of George Osborne and Ed Balls’s new podcast, Political Currency, opened with an old clip of the…
Fish out of water
As a one-nation Tory, Rory Stewart was not a good fit in the party’s new incarnation. We discover how his desire to make the world a better place was always going to work against him
George Osborne’s midlife crisis
There should be a term in anthropology for what happens to a certain type of Tory male in middle age.…
British Museum keeps the Chinese golden era alive
It’s been a bit of a bad week for the British Museum. High temperatures forced staff to close the site…
What shape is the Treasury in now?
Don’t bring a bottle. Your chances of finding a party in full swing down those chilly corridors are close to…
What Rishi Sunak could learn from George Osborne
I was walking last week from Canary Wharf tube station to my flat in east London – not far, little…
Cameron snubs Osborne
The papers have been full of speculation this month about rumours of a rift between Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson.…
How Boris eclipsed Cameron
Remember the days when David Cameron was the sleek young prime minister who had brought to an end 13 years…
Blonde with a bombshell: Sasha Swire’s revelations about the Cameroons
Ten years ago, reviewing Alastair Campbell’s diaries for The Spectator, I concluded as follows: Who will be the chroniclers of…
How it all went right: The great Brexit wound has almost healed
The great Brexit divide seems to have mended since the election
Letters: Just how should you pronounce vermouth?
Down to zero Sir: Paul Collier’s siren call to take advantage of near-zero interest rates to go on a massive…
George Osborne: I tried to swap jobs with William Hague
I could be that rare thing: a former chancellor who is still a member of the Conservative party. Philip Hammond…
From the NHS to Bayreuth: Norman Lebrecht talks to midwife-turned-opera singer Catherine Foster
Every summer for the past six years, Bayreuth has risen to its feet to acclaim an English Brünnhilde. Catherine Foster,…
I’m the latest victim of George Osborne’s austerity
I got the sack the other day from the London Evening Standard, where I’ve been a weekly columnist for about…
How BlackRock became a sanctuary for clean-cut bankers and dormant politicians
A few months ago, an aggressive US pressure group called the Campaign for Accountability declared that it had a new…
George Osborne: Davos diary
We Citizens of Nowhere have made our home in Davos this week. Where else? Those who think we’re a remote…
The universal credit crunch
It only dawned on me in late summer just how terrible our new benefits system, universal credit, might be both…
Diary
Next month, the Today programme marks its 60th anniversary, so I have been mugging up on the archives. If there…
Greater Oxbridge
Oxbridge is an ivory-tower state of mind, perhaps, or at least two ancient rival universities, but how about this: in…
Diary
As pictures go, it could be career death. An amazing young talent caught in a compromising position with two older…
Derek Jacobi as Mercutio is half-genius, half-prank: Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick reviewed
Out come the stars in Kenneth Branagh’s Romeo and Juliet. He musters a well-drilled, celebrity-ridden crew but they can’t quite…
The EU referendum has shown us the real David Cameron
Westminster has a tendency to get ahead of itself. MPs want to discuss the aftermath of an event long before…
Brexit, George Osborne, and the art of post-factual politics
The Chancellor and PM are using every dirty trick in the Blairite book to win a Remain vote
